iMac Update: December 20, 2001

Some of you had a hard time deciding. Watch movies on the go. Burn CDs on the fly. What’s a road warrior to do?

Why not do both?

The newest iteration of the Titanium PowerBook G4, announced just this week, features a slot-loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive in both configurations. So now you can either watch your favorite DVD movies or create your own audio CDs. Dilemma solved.

But that’s not all. Both our 550MHz and 667MHz PowerBook G4 models come standard with lots of memory—256MB and 512MB (that’s half a gigabyte), respectively, and both models support up to 1GB.

The 667MHz PowerBook G4 also includes a pre-installed AirPort Card, so you’re ready to network wirelessly as soon as you take your new PowerBook out of the box.

Take a tour of Heathwood Hall Episcopal School and you’ll find Macintosh computers in every classroom—being used by students as young as 3 years old.

At Heathwood, the philosophy is to immerse students in Mac-based learning as early as preschool and continue it through high school, where seniors use iMac computers to complete their final research projects. In fact, the administration sticks with Macintosh computers because they’ve helped Heathwood’s students earn more National Merit Scholarships than any independent school in South Carolina’s Midlands region.

Explains Director of Technology Bill Cherry: “In the 20 years we’ve been using Apple computers, I’ve seen former students return again and again, and they always say the same thing: they’re way ahead of anyone they run into.”

Don’t book that Florida golf vacation just yet. You can improve your golf game even if there’s a foot of snow outside.

Just tee up Links Championship Edition 2002 on your Macintosh. You can play as one of 15 golfers—including the legendary Arnold Palmer—on 13 of the most prestigious golf courses in the world.

Prefer to build your own course? Simply open the included Arnold Palmer Course Designer and create the course of your dreams. When you’re done, invite your friends to help you break it in. Click on Links’ multiplayer function and you can chat with them as you play 18 holes over the Internet.

Built for Mac OS X, Links Championship Edition 2002 is available wherever Apple products are sold.

While computers can be an invaluable asset in the classroom, high school science labs rival students’ bedrooms when it comes to mess. Not only can caustic chemicals pose a risk to the equipment, but cabling can trip up students concentrating on their experiments.

So at Michigan’s Jenison High School, Director of Media and Technology Tim Staal implemented an off-the-wall solution for protecting both the labs’ iMac computers and his students.

First he mounted the lab’s iMac computers on the wall, where they could swivel out of harm’s way. Then, for an easy and cost-effective solution to the cabling issue, he installed AirPort Cards in the iMac computers and AirPort Base Stations in the ceiling.

“The iMac computers and the AirPort cards have given us a solution that’s practical,” says Staal. “Best of all, it works.”

In addition to all of the great applications designed expressly for Mac OS X, did you know that you can now run Windows applications in Mac OS X?

It’s all thanks to Virtual PC 5.0, a new version of the best-selling PC emulation software from Connectix. In fact, Virtual PC 5.0 lets you not only run Windows applications but connect to PC networks, share files with PC users, and mount USB devices (scanners, MP3 players, handheld computers) from the Windows environment. It offers full support for Ethernet and features a new “Undoable drive” option that isn’t available anywhere else — especially on a PC.

You’ll find more information about Virtual PC 5.0 for Mac OS X on our website, and it’s available at the Apple Store.

In Mac OS X, we’ve designed the Finder to keep screen clutter to a minimum. You may have noticed, for example, that when you double-click a folder or a disk, the window that opens replaces the current window.

But Mac OS X is all about options, and you have numerous options for controlling the way windows open—either on the fly or permanently.

For details, go to the Finder, choose Mac Help from the Help menu, type “Opening a separate window or a folder,” then click Ask.

Have you noticed? We have.

We designed Software Update so that you could set it to check for new or updated Mac OS X features automatically—on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

We’ve found that in certain cases, Software Update has not, in fact, been performing as it should. We are working on a solution that will remedy this issue and will deliver it to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, you can obtain the latest Mac OS X software enhancements by opening the Software Update preference and clicking “Update Now.”

Like to read chapter and verse on the new Bible? The newly published eighth edition of “The Macintosh Bible,” that is. Updated to include coverage of Mac OS X v10.1, “The Macintosh Bible” offers an incredible collection of information about everything Macintosh. Written by a team of top Mac experts, it’s published by Peachpit Press.

The Houston Chronicle’s Bob LeVitus raves about Microsoft Office v.X for Mac in a recent column. He reserves special praise for Word and Entourage, calling them “the best versions I’ve ever used.”

“The iPod,” says analyst Tim Bajarin in a recent article on abcNEWS.com, “really is a revolutionary MP3 player that sets it apart from any other on the market today.”

Bajarin is not alone. Peter Lewis is so taken with the iPod that he ranks it among “My Favorite Things” in his Fortune article on Fortune.com. “Apple has hit a high note,” he says of iPod. “The gleaming stainless-steel and icewhite iPod MP3 player is as small as a deck of cards and weighs just 6.5 ounces, but it packs a five-gigabyte hard drive capable of storing 50 hours of digital songs.”

Can you believe it: 2002 is fast approaching and this is our last issue of iMac Update for the year.

Next year, we’ll begin our publishing schedule by bringing you news from Macworld San Francisco 2002. Look for that issue on January 10.

We wish you all a safe and healthy holiday and a very Happy New Year.

iMac Update is a free, bi-weekly email publication.

Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Visit your local Apple site or call your local authorized Apple reseller for more information. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars. Product specifications are subject to change.